A variety of putting greens for golfers are known. These putting greens may be portable, as, for example, the greens often found in homes or offices, or these putting greens may be stationary or permanently fixed to an area, such as the greens found in amusement parks or game rooms. Regardless of whether these prior art putting greens are portable or stationary, they basically are similar in their structure and mode of operation. For example, most existing portable and stationary greens have stationary slopes. Thus, the area or slope surrounding the ball cup always remains constant and may not be adjusted for slope variation. Usually, the slope is upward toward the cup, to accommodate the depth of the cup and to avoid digging a hole in the underlying surface. Furthermore, most existing portable and stationary greens usually require the golfer to retrieve each putted ball from the cup or the area surrounding the cup by approaching the cup and stooping to pick it up. While some of the existing greens include a ball retrieval mechanism, these mechanisms usually involve systems which only remove the ball found in the cup, and not balls in the area surrounding the cup. Furthermore, these mechanisms generally only return one ball at a time, so that a golfer must wait for a ball in the cup to be returned before hitting another ball. In some cases, these ball-in-the-cup retrieval mechanisms do not operate to return the putted ball to the golfer, but instead, the balls are returned to a holding box as a theft preventative measure. Such holding boxes are typically found in amusement parks or game rooms.
Existing games do not keep the golfer's score or distinguish between a successful or unsuccessful initial putt, other than that the ball may be returned with a successful putt. If the first putt does not land in the cup, the golfer usually must walk to the ball and putt again. In an arcade or game room, this substantially reduces the pace of the game and limits the number of potential players within a given time span.
Thus, while the existing portable and stationary putting greens offer the golfer the basic essentials--a green with a single slope and a cup for the ball--they are extremely limited in their structure and operation.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a putting green assembly having an adjustable slope of multiple variations.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a putting green assembly having a multi-ball return mechanism.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a putting green assembly in which the area of the green surrounding the cup need not have an upward slope to accommodate the depth of the cup.
Yet another object is to provide a putting green assembly which senses that a ball has been putted and is on the playfield, off the playfield, or in the cup, and assigns a different score for each position.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a putting green assembly that may include an extension mat for chipping.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a putting green assembly which may be portable or stationary.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a putting green assembly which may be used indoors or outdoors.